What R.P. Adams does

R.P. Adams is a U.S.-based industrial manufacturer of heat transfer and liquid/gas filtration equipment, founded in 1937 in Tonawanda, NY and operating as a subsidiary of Service Filteration Corporation. The company produces a broad product portfolio organized around six categories: shell and tube heat exchangers (AR, AF, AU, AKU series meeting TEMA and ASME Section VIII Div 1 standards), aftercoolers (SAF, SFT, SLB, SAR models for compressed air cooling up to 50,000 CFM at 1,000 PSIG), cyclone and centrifugal separators (CY series and the 2018-launched TC-S), automatic self-cleaning backwash strainers and manual strainers, multi-element tubular IWF filters for liquid filtration down to 0.5 micron, and GP air/gas/steam filters using proprietary Poro-Stone ceramic elements. Custom engineered process solutions are offered alongside standard products, and the engineering department uses SolidWorks Flow Simulation (CFD) software integrated with 3D CAD for design and troubleshooting.

The company's commercial model is direct B2B industrial equipment sales, conducted through a phone/website channel (716-877-2608), a regional Rep Finder network segmented by Filtration, Industrial, and Municipal markets, and direct factory shipment from its 60,000 sq ft Buffalo, NY manufacturing plant where 100% of design and production is handled in-house. Pricing is quote-based and custom-engineered to specification, with multi-year contract cadences typical of industrial OEM sales. Customer logos span major U.S. enterprises across automotive (Chrysler, LGE), steel (Arcelor Mittal), power generation (Duke Energy), industrial manufacturing (GE, Ingersoll), and pulp & paper (International Paper), with the company actively addressing 14 verticals including chemical, drinking water, HVAC/cooling towers, marine/sea water, mining, municipal, oil/gas/ethanol, pulp & paper, snow making, steel/non-ferrous metals, wastewater, and water reclamation. The product line is differentiated by patents (1965 AWS automatic water strainer, Economat reheat system, Poro-Stone ceramic elements, wedge wire media) and by extreme product longevity (heat exchangers 50+ years, IWF filter elements 25+ years).

Name

R.P. Adams

Legal name

R.P. Adams

Website

https://rpadams.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1937

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

R.P. Adams is a 1937-founded U.S. industrial manufacturer of heat exchangers and liquid/gas filtration equipment, operating as a subsidiary of Service Filteration Corporation from a 60,000 sq ft Buffalo, NY plant, serving enterprise customers across 14 verticals including power generation, chemical, water, and steel.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industrial Heat Transfer & Filtration Equipment

NAICS

Power Boiler and Heat Exchanger Manufacturing (332410), Heating Equipment (except Warm Air Furnaces) Manufacturing (333414), Ventilation, Heating, Air-Conditioning, and Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturing (3334)

SIC

Heating Equipment, Except Electric & Warm Air Furnaces (3433), Fabricated Plate Work (Boiler Shops) (3443), Heating Equip, Except Elec & Warm Air; & Plumbing Fixtures (3430)

akta.pro primary industry

Heat Transfer Equipment (Heat Exchangers, Boilers, Condensers) (IMAHAEAC)

Keywords

• Industrial heat exchangers
• Liquid filtration equipment
• Shell and tube exchangers
• Automatic water strainers
• Custom process solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Tonawanda

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Industrial Equipment Manufacturing & Sales: R.P. Adams manufactures and sells filtration and heat transfer equipment directly to industrial customers. Products include heat exchangers, aftercoolers, strainers, filters, and separators. The company also offers custom engineered packages and process solutions. Revenue is generated through product sales with custom quotes based on specifications.
2. Custom Process Solutions: The company creates custom product packages to solve process problems, offering engineered packages featuring filtration and heat transfer products. Services include process analysis, system design & engineering, equipment supply, and start-up services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

R.P. Adams designs, manufactures, and sells industrial heat transfer equipment (shell and tube heat exchangers and aftercoolers) and liquid/air/gas filtration equipment (automatic self-cleaning strainers, manual strainers, cyclone separators, ceramic and tubular filters, culinary steam filters) for industrial and municipal customers. All design and manufacturing is performed in-house at a 60,000 sq ft Buffalo, NY facility, with custom engineered process solutions (process analysis, system design, equipment supply, and start-up services) offered alongside the standard product catalog.

Product overview

R.P. Adams is a manufacturer of filtration and heat transfer equipment founded in 1937, operating as a subsidiary of Service Filtration Corporation. The company produces a comprehensive portfolio of products organized into six main categories: Heat Exchangers (including AR, AF, AU, and AKU series shell and tube exchangers meeting TEMA and ASME standards), Aftercoolers (SAF, SFT, SLB, SAR models for compressed air cooling), Cyclone Separators (CY series and new TC-S centrifugal separator), Strainers (Automatic self-cleaning backwash strainers and Manual strainers including Y, basket, duplex types), Fine Filtration (IWF multi-element tubular filters for liquid filtration down to 0.5 micron), and Air/Gas/Steam Filtration (GP filters and 3A culinary steam filters). The product line includes the proprietary Economat Reheat System for heat recovery. Products are designed for industries including automotive, chemical, drinking water, HVAC, marine, mining, municipal, oil/gas, power generation, pulp & paper, and steel. The company operates a 60,000 square foot facility in Buffalo, NY with 100% in-house design and manufacturing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AR Series Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Removable bundle shell and tube heat exchanger with rear floating tubesheet that accommodates high temperature differentials and relieves stress effects from thermal expansion and contraction. Available in TEMA types AEW, AET, BEP, AES for industrial process heat transfer applications.
• AF Series Fixed Tube Heat Exchanger Fixed shell and tube heat exchanger with zero-leak design, ideal for hazardous or flammable gases or liquids where external fluid leakage cannot be tolerated. Available in TEMA types BEM, BEL, NEN.
• AU Series U-Tube Shell Heat Exchanger U-tube shell heat exchanger with removable tube bundle for hazardous or flammable gases or liquids. No external fluid leakage and no packing required. Available in TEMA types AEU, BEU.
• AKU Series Kettle Type Heat Exchanger Removable U-tube bundle kettle type heat exchanger designed to stand up to thermal stress. Shell side can be flooded with ammonia as cooling media; design pressures up to 3,000 PSIG. Available in TEMA types AKU, BKU.
• Economat Reheat System Custom heat recovery/reheat system that captures heat of compression and adds it back into compressed air systems, recovering lost gas volume and delivering clean, dry air without external energy input. Provides gas dew points as low as 35°F and can recycle up to 25% of cooled compressed air.
• SAF Pipeline Aftercooler & Cyclone Separator Counter flow aftercooler with air in tubes and water in shell, providing efficient moisture removal from compressed air. Handles up to 50,000 cubic feet of air per minute at pressures to 1,000 PSIG.
• SFT Fixed Bundle Aftercooler Fixed bundle aftercooler providing maximum heat transfer surface for a given shell and tube size. Water-cooled with air/gas in tubes and coolant in shell, with a compact design and easy tube-side cleaning.
• SLB Pipeline Aftercooler Short Length Bare Tube aftercooler with integral separator providing enhanced cooling in less space. Water-cooled for consistent process control with removable tube bundle.
• SAR Removable Bundle Aftercooler Removable bundle aftercooler for cooling compressed air or gas with dirty or corrosive coolants such as seawater. Rear floating tubesheet eliminates stress from thermal expansion.
• CY Series Cyclone Separator Cyclone separator that effectively removes up to 85% of condensed liquid and contaminants from air or gas streams using cyclone action. Design pressures from 150 to 900 PSIG, sizes up to 18 inches.
• TC-S Separator Tee-shaped centrifugal separator for removing entrained moisture from air streams. More cost-effective than traditional cyclone separators while maintaining effective moisture removal through deflector plate and baffle plate technology, designed using CFD software.
• Adams Automatic Strainer Patented automatic self-cleaning (backwash) strainer providing continuous unattended operation for removing suspended solids, dirt, and debris from water streams and process fluids. Multi-element design with flow capacities from 150 GPM to 85,000 GPM.
• Manual Strainer Complete line of manual strainers including Y strainers, basket strainers, duplex strainers, and temporary startup strainers. Available in cast iron, stainless steel, bronze, and fabricated materials, sizes from ½" to 48".
• IWF Filter Multi-element tubular filter for fine particulate removal from liquid process streams. Uses filter aid precoat to remove particles as fine as 0.5 micron with flow rates up to 2 gpm/ft². Suitable for bleach filtration and potable water treatment.
• GP Filters (Air, Gas & Steam) High-performance filters for protecting sensitive air and gas handling systems from contamination. Feature Poro-Stone ceramic element for nominal five micron filtration, removing bacteria and slime. Withstand temperatures up to 650°F and pressures to 500 PSIG.
• 3A Culinary Steam Filter Steam filter meeting 3A Sanitary Standards and 3A Accepted Practices for dairy and food processing applications, allowing steam to make direct contact with the final product in food processing operations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 25% of cooled compressed air can be recycled with Economat reheat system
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments14 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Service Filteration CorporationcoreOthersR.P. Adams is a subsidiary of Service Filteration Corporation. The parent company's contact email ([email protected]) appears on the R.P. Adams website footer.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Xylem: Global water technology company with significant presence in water filtration, treatment, and pumping. Overlaps with R.P. Adams' municipal, drinking water, and wastewater segments at larger scale.
• Alfa Laval: Global manufacturer of heat exchangers, separation equipment, and fluid handling – the largest and most diversified incumbent in R.P. Adams' core heat transfer / separation space, competing on both shell-and-tube exchangers and aftercoolers across the same verticals.
• SPX Heat Transfer (Chart Industries): Acquired by Chart Industries, SPX historically supplied heat exchangers, aftercoolers, and dry coolers to industrial and HVAC markets. Comparable in aftercooler and shell-and-tube offerings with broader scale.
• Donaldson Company: Global filtration solutions provider spanning industrial and compressed-air filtration. While primarily air filtration, it is one of the closest large-scale references for R.P. Adams' filter/strainer/separator portfolio.
• Pall Corporation (Danaher): Danaher-owned filtration specialist serving chemical, energy, and biopharma markets. Comparable in fine liquid filtration (IWF-type applications) and process filtration at much larger scale.

Direct peers

• API Heat Transfer: Direct US-based manufacturer of shell-and-tube heat exchangers and aftercoolers, serving similar industrial and power-generation customers. Competes head-to-head in heat transfer with comparable engineering and customization capability.
• Graham Corporation: US-based manufacturer of heat transfer equipment, condensers, and pressure vessels for defense, energy, and process industries. Highly comparable in TEMA/ASME heat exchanger focus and target EPC/utility customers.
• Mueller Industries: US-based diversified industrial manufacturer with a heat transfer products group including shell-and-tube heat exchangers. Overlaps directly with R.P. Adams in industrial heat exchange and fluid handling.
• Taco Comfort Solutions: Manufacturer of heat transfer products (heat exchangers, air separators, pumps) primarily serving HVAC, plumbing, and hydronic markets. Closely comparable to R.P. Adams' shell-and-tube heat exchanger and HVAC/cooling-tower focus.

Emerging players

• HRS Heat Exchangers: Specialized manufacturer of heat exchangers (corrugated, plate, scraped-surface) for hygienic and process industries. Comparable technology adjacency in custom heat transfer solutions, particularly for process and food/dairy verticals.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about R.P. Adams